1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioning equipment and a regenerative type air conditioning method wherein, for leveling electric power loads in the daytime and the nighttime, wherein, for example, heat is accumulated with night power so as to perform air conditioning and hot water supply in the daytime.
2. Description of the Related Art
For stabilizing the activity rate of a power plant, it has been desired to level day and night power loads. Especially in recent years when the day power load in an air cooling system in summer has become very heavy and when the capability of a power supply side has approached its limit, techniques for leveling the day and night power loads have been sought. In this regard, regenerative type air conditioning equipment has been proposed electric power generated in the nighttime is stored so as to derive it as energy for the air cooling in the daytime.
Regenerative type air conditioning equipment of the aforementioned type is proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 218773, 1987, wherein adopts a concentration difference regeneration method is employed, with the equipment including a heat pump device having a compressor for adiabatically compressing a coolant, and a concentration difference regeneration device for performing air cooling and heating by a concentrated heat accumulating liquid and a condensate liquid that are produced by vaporizing the heat accumulating liquid. The concentration difference regeneration device includes a container provided with a chamber for reserving the concentrated heat accumulating liquid, and a chamber for storing the condensate liquid. The concentrated heat accumulating liquid chamber of the container is furnished with a concentrated heat accumulating liquid heat exchanger for effecting the heat exchange between the coolant adiabatically compressed and the concentrated heat accumulating liquid, and a spray nozzle for sprinkling the concentrated heat accumulating liquid into this concentrated heat accumulating liquid chamber, while the condensate liquid chamber is furnished with a condensate liquid heat exchanger for effecting the heat exchange between the coolant adiabatically compressed and the condensate liquid, and a spray nozzle for sprinkling the condensate liquid into this condensate liquid chamber.
With the regenerative type air conditioning equipment, in a heat accumulating mode, the coolant whose temperature has been raised by the adiabatic compression is passed through the concentrated heat accumulating liquid heat exchanger, to heat and vaporize the heat accumulating liquid. The remaining liquid is stored in the concentrated heat accumulating liquid chamber as the concentrated heat accumulating liquid. On the other hand, the vapor is introduced into the condensate liquid chamber and is condensed, whereupon the resulting condensate is stored in this condensate liquid chamber. In an air cooling or heating mode, the condensate liquid and the concentrated heat accumulating liquid are respectively sprayed by the corresponding spray nozzles, the sprayed condensate liquid is vaporized under a low pressure, and the sprayed concentrated heat accumulating liquid is caused to absorb this condensate liquid. Herein, in the air cooling mode, the latent heat of vaporization of the condensate is taken away from a medium having passed through an air conditioner, thereby cooling the medium, and the cooled medium is immediately fed to the air conditioner. In the heating mode, the medium passing through the air conditioner is heated by the heat of absorption developing from the concentrated heat accumulating liquid.
Additionally, the heat accumulating liquids of high and low concentrations are reserved in an identical reservoir. Whenever the heat accumulating liquid is to be drawn out of the reservoir, it is drawn out from the lower part of this reservoir, and whenever it is to be returned into the reservoir, it is returned thereinto from the upper part of the container.
In recent years, a large number of such regenerative type air conditioning equipment has been found in urban areas. In this regard, reduction in the size of the equipment is eagerly requested because of the influences of a sudden rise in the price of land, and so on.
Nevertheless, the regenerative type air conditioning equipment in the prior art cannot meet this request. More specifically, in the air cooling mode, the medium is cooled to a desired temperature by taking the latent heat of vaporization of the condensate liquid from the medium of the air conditioner, and the cooled medium is directly fed to the air conditioner. Therefore, the concentrated heat accumulating liquid which absorbs the vapor of the condensate liquid so as to vaporize this condensate liquid at a low temperature cannot be used until it turns into the heat accumulating liquid of low concentration. Accordingly, a large sized liquid reservoir is required.
Also, in the heating mode, the condensate liquid is vaporized merely under the low pressure condition without being heated, so that a low internal pressure of the container needs to be maintained. Therefore, the concentrated heat accumulating liquid cannot be used until there is a low concentration, and liquid reservoir is large in size.
Generally, a liquid of high concentration is higher in density than a liquid of low concentration, for this reason, when these liquids are received in an identical container, the high concentration liquid precipitates downwardly in the container. With the regenerative type air conditioning equipment in the prior art, even in the heat accumulating mode, the heat accumulating liquid is drawn out of the lower part of the reservoir, and the concentrated heat accumulating liquid is put into the reservoir from the upper part thereof. Consequently, the heat accumulating liquid which has been concentrated liquid into the high concentration precipitates downwardly, and it mixes with the heat accumulating liquid of the low concentration which is not concentrated, so that the heat accumulating liquid cannot be held at the high concentration. Therefore, the heat accumulating liquid having reached a somewhat high level needs to be reserved in a comparatively large amount, and the reservoir of the heat accumulating liquid necessarily becomes large sized.
In this manner, the regenerative type air conditioning equipment in the prior art has a problem in that, since the available concentration range of the heat accumulating liquid is narrow, the quantity of this heat accumulating liquid which needs to be reserved is large, thereby increasing the size of the equipment.
Moreover, the regenerative type air conditioning equipment in the prior art has a problem in that, since a concentrating operation and a diluting operation at different temperature levels are carried out in the identical container, the start stage of the concentrating operation requires surplus heat until the container is heated, whereas the start stage of the diluting operation is incapable of deriving a predetermined temperature for the air cooling until the container is cooled.